SHOCK OVER DISABLED PARKING BLUNDER

By MendipLibDems | Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 16:46

Mendip District Councillors were left in shock this week when it appeared that the Portfolio Holder for Regulatory Services let slip details of yet more changes to Mendip's carparks. Cllr John Parham (Con, Shepton West) took to Twitter and confirmed to a resident that charging Disabled Blue Badge holders to park was one of a range of options the Mendip administration is currently considering in a bid to increase revenue.

In a public exchange with a Mendip resident, Cllr Parham stated that 'no decision had yet been made' over charging disabled people to park, but that 'consultation and impact assessments' will be carried out. Leader of the LibDem opposition at Mendip, Cllr Claire Hudson (Frome Park) said 'We've campaigned on Mendip's approach to carparks for years now. I'm sad to say that whilst Mendip's recent price increase came as little surprise - a move to charge disabled people to park seems to be a real and definite move in the wrong direction.'

Cllr Helen Sprawson-White (Frome Oakfield) and Shadow Portfolio Holder for Regulatory Services was also worried about further changes, 'As a nurse, I see day in day out the problems long-term disabled people suffer, I think that an element of free parking is the least Mendip can do to help. I will be urging the council not to go down this route.'

The Mendip Cabinet voted unanimously last week to increase parking charges across the board by 7-12% but following local pressure have delayed implementation until February.

ENDS

Re-post Write a story

Ads by Google

Comments

It is amusing to hear that Mendip's Liberal Democrats are in shock over the fact that Mendip are going to be consulting with the relevent groups as to whether or not to introduce parking charges for blue badge holders.

In a discussion on Twitter on Thursday last week, I confirmed what had been discussed in public at the cabinet meeting on the previous Monday, both Cllr Sprawson-White and Cllr Hudson, part of the "shocked" group of Lib Dems actually attended the meeting and even got involved with the debate, how could they then be "shocked" 3 days later, unless they were not paying attention.

If they had attended the working group that put forward the recommendations they could have had input at that stage as well, but as they were all "too busy" to represent their electorate they missed that opportunity as well

The other answer could be is that they are playing politics, mmmmmmmmm come to think of it that's possibly it.

If the Mendip Lib Dems want to find out about the impact of charging for disabled parking, perhaps they should consult South Somerset District Council, where the Lib Dem administration introduced charging for disabled parking some time ago.

By johnp2010 at 16:00 on 16/11/11
Report